Long-vacant Harlem lot at 15 West 119th is getting apartments

A new apartment building is emerging from a vacant lot at 15-19 West 119th Street in Harlem.

The six-story, 13-unit development will be designed by Melamed Architect, with 10,716 square feet of residential space, according to the plan exam application filed October 25th.

Located between Fifth and Lenox avenues, the irregular lot just south of Marcus Garvey Park sold for $1.1 million in September 2012, according to Ariel Property Advisors, which handled the deal. The listing first went live in 2011, with an asking price of $800,000.

The vacant land on the mostly brownstone-lined block has been draped in mystery for some time; a resident tipster told Harlem Bespoke in 2011, “We had proposed to our block association looking into putting a community garden in the space… we are now hearing that the church-owned lots [at the site] have been sold and are being developed but this is all rumor level type stuff.”

Well, rumor no more! And, uh, community garden no more.

Here’s the tax map of the area, with the to-be-developed site in gray: